Financial

Without a doubt, one of the greatest new frontiers for technology is to take the banks and credit card companies out – the same way tech companies have taken out retailers, film producers such as Kodak, florists, record companies and more. Expect the major players new players in the space to be Apple, PayPal, Google and Microsoft – interestingly in the late nineties, a Microsoft exec gave a keynote address at a TMC expo and said that we will see mobile payments on the horizon – the prediction will and has come true but one wonders if the world’s largest software company can keep up in the race for mobile – let alone mobile payments.

I have already deposited two checks via mobile phone applications and although it is a weird feeling to rip up checks with your name on them once you are done – it does show how comfortable people will likely become with using their phone as a payment and deposit vehicle. After all, I felt weird the first few times I deposited a check into an ATM machine – many years ago.

There is a simple fact that every American knows but many are scared to confront - our government is spending us into near-bankruptcy. Every dollar which we have to borrow to spend adds to the problem.

Other countries who have done the exact same thing have seen hyperinflation where the value of the money decreases so fast you have to rush to the store to spend your paycheck because if you don't, it will buy half as much or less a few days later.

One example of hyperinflation due to the government printing too much money was in the Weimar Republic less than a hundred years ago where as Wikipedia points out the money was so worthless, it was used as wallpaper!

This situation led to the Nazi takeover of Germany which launched a new currency called the Reichsmark where one of these new notes was issued in exchange for 1 billion of the Weimar Marks. When this happened, prices were reduced by 12 zeros!

There is an incredible ad which details how countries like China are taking over the US by becoming the country which loans us money which we in-turn waste. This is the same money spent on various stimulus plans that have created far less jobs than projected if any net jobs at all.

To keep the ad above running on TV where I just saw it, be sure to immediately contribute to Citizens Against Government Waste.

The election next week is a choice between continuing to borrow money and spend it on wasteful projects and raising taxes on all of us to pay for it all - or a return to a smaller government which allows its citizens to prosper by implementing common sense regulation and a more stable and steady business environment.

Having said that - the Republicans and Tea Party are expected to win many seats.

A few recent articles reminded me it makes sense to warn our TMC team members about the pending tax increases which will take place next year. It is unclear if the Bush tax cuts will expire at this point but I believe it makes sense to prepare everybody for the worst. You may want to adapt this letter I sent to the TMC team for your company.

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Team, readers of my blog know I have pointed out how many business leaders have complained about massive regulatory uncertainly is keeping the economy from healing.

Part of the problem is tax uncertainty – it seems we are scheduled for perhaps the largest tax increase (details) in our lifetimes.

For my US readers, next week’s election may be the most important of our lifetimes and if you have noticed my writings have become more political these past few years it is only because politics has become a far greater part of my discussions with companies in the tech space than at any time in the past three decades.

Most people I interview are very concerned that government politics and rhetoric have taken us in the exact wrong direction. My discussions with friends and acquaintances also paint a picture of people not buying houses or adding on to their homes while the Obama, Pelosi, Reid combo are in office.

Often we hear the complaints about this trio regarding wealth redistribution and being hostile to business – but there is a far larger problem with the Democrats in power today… They think they know how to build an economy better than the business owners who have kept the US a leading economic power for a good portion of the past few centuries.

TMC blogger, Peter Radizeski may have set two records in breaking news of two acquisitions in one day. If that isn't a record, certainly the fact that both acquiring companies start with the same five letters has to make it into the Guinness Book.

First there was Broadsoft acquiring Casabi which I commented on last week. Next there was Broadvox acquiring Cypress Communications which Peter broke here and follwed up on here. TMC's Paula Bernier added her opinions to the mix and further reminds us of a slew of other acquisitions taking place in the market.

The book focuses on how Barrack Obama was imprinted with strong anticolonialist feelings as a result in-part of his grandfather being tortured by British soldiers in Kenya.

While this post is not meant as a book review - many business leaders I speak with hear the President's policies and especially his speeches and feel he is against business people. At least seven out of ten managers feel this way in the discussions I have had recently.

I have said many times the reason the US is in as bad a situation as it is today has to do with the fact that the Internet has accelerated the transfer of manufacturing jobs to China and service jobs to India.

Instead of spending our time blaming Wall Street and people making $250,001 for our current problems we need to understand that the real estate bubble of the last decade was encouraged by virtually everyone in our government as well as the Federal Reserve because it masked the larger problem of jobs being outsourced. After all, it is tough to outsource home and office construction jobs.

To put my past thoughts in perspective there is an article I came across which sums up the massive changes which have taken place in the US over the years.

Here are some salient points:

The number of people in the manufacturing sector today is about the same as 1941!

The US spends almost $4 for Chinese goods for every $1 China spends on US goods

US 15-year-olds do not rank in the top half in math and science in developed nations

We have the third-worst poverty rate among developed nations

In the last 100 years or so the US dollar has lost about 95% of its purchasing power

The solutions to our challenges have to do with acknowledging the above and more importantly electing leaders who understand the problems we face have to do with education, focus and competition.

Moreover, we have so many government leaders who have never hired a single person, run a company or done anything which would give them experience enabling them to understand how to create an atmosphere where entrepreneurs can thrive.

New small businesses which we desperately need, require far less regulation so they can compete with China and India. In addition they need much less government overhead and far lower taxes. Very few in government today understand any of this or if they do they never seem to mention it.

The ITEXPO West 2010 Show Guide is here and if you are flying to the show - you may want to download it to your Kindle/laptop/iPad/netbook/smartphone or print it. I am on the plane now and we have the equivalent of a 300 baud modem's worth of bandwidth so I can't download it but as I recall it is over 100 pages and gives you a solid overview of the dozen conferences taking place next week.

In addition it shows you the exhibit hall with over 200 exhibitors and which sections correspond to which technology.

I have this dream that I will have enough time to go through the directory and point to some of the interesting highlights in a blog post.

We'll see how that works out.

Here is the PDF and it is fairly compressed down to 5 Megs as I recall - we may be getting a higher res one soon as well in case you have the bandwidth.